Wanderlust

This poem is by my younger sister, Jahnavi.


I want to travel the world
See new places and get bowled
A mountain here, a rainbow there
And nature’s beauty everywhere

My heart longs for a place
With all the world’s beauty and grace
I would love to live there all day
And explore the environs and play

It’s good to pack a bag and go away
And make friends while on the way
Life becomes beautiful, as they say
It gets exciting each passing day

Just try and live like a gypsy
Who knows, you’ll never be that busy
And when I think of a word, which is just
All that comes to my mind is, Wanderlust!

Also visit: http://gdhar.com/2007/09/01/wanderlust/

Perdition

I looked towards the sky
saw the birds gliding by

I looked at the endless ocean
and saw the fish and corals
gleaming under the sun

Then I saw the earth

I could only see hunger, grief,sadness,hatred and death.

City Lights

This one is a poem written by my friend Neeraj. Its actually a story converted into a poem.


The rivers that flowed,
The clouds which moved,
The people who knew,
That there's nothing new

By the way he thinks,
In the way he links,
His present with the future

Oh, it's against our culture !

They know he's a drifter
Born to be free,
The one who dreams beyond his wildest dreams,

Stop him please,
Cling to him now !

He, yes he, kept glued to the glitter of the city lights,
To the might of the man-made sights,
Oh yes, in the shimmer of those city lights.

Drawn towards the light, he was,
Like a bee to a flower,
Like a baby towards it's mother.

Deprived of all emotion and longing,
Ready to disperse in the flame,
For one day here,
None will know his name.

No end in sight.

Craved to be the ONE,
Couldn't dodge his destiny, his karma.

Life throws more thorns than roses,
These are friends with agendas,
Real ones are far beyond your reach.

Now, disillusioned, dilapidated.
Home is where the heart beats.
No city lights and city streets..

Don't chuck away, don't chuck it all,
The best is not always the best,
Think now, don't move
The best can be the worst.
It was !

Oh !! He cried, no city lights, no city beats
My home, my heaven,
My rivers, my clouds,
That moved and flowed,

The people who knew.

Not a black sheep anymore,
Just a drifted soul,
Gravitated now, In his Utopia !

Devil in Disguise

A poem that I co-wrote with a friend during my college years. This one was actually composed within one hour for a competition.

Peaks and positions achieved, hopes and dreams lived
A long journey we tread
Step by step we succeed
Yet in life we weep
Do we know the ultimate goal?

Being here we have to nurture our soul
Or should we let our displeasures take toll?
In search of peace and tranquility, we may begin with soul searching.
But often we forget, it’s our heart that needs healing
And mind that should move towards infinity.

Our way we decide, we make a choice
But all we hear is a negative voice
To goodness we question, who is this devil in disguise?
Always making us hear his doubts wise
Never leaving us alone, so in peace we may reside

Now lived through negative times
We no more hide
For there is always a divine ray bright, to take us on path right
So today, tomorrow and so long
In our hearts we may hear the celestial song

Which may guide us when life goes wrong
And in fear lay not our mind
With peace, harmony each human shall bind,
The devil in disguise we shall leave behind
To move forward towards a spiritual realm of a different kind.

Encounter

I had a strange experience last week in a bus. It was a lady in the bus in which I was traveling, on route number 318 to Santacruz. The lady was a huge burly woman with lots of baggage.

She sat down in the seat meant for the handicapped ( which in Mumbai ‘BEST’ buses is usually the first seat on the left side corner). All of a sudden there was some commotion. It appeared that this lady was shouting at a passenger who was standing near her seat and waiting for the next stop to come so that he could get down.
“Mere sar par mat khade raho, dikhta nahi hai kya, peeche khade raho”, were some of the words she used.

The poor passenger just stood there mutely, and after sometime, got down. Her next prey was a student who was standing beside her seat. Again she did the same thing. She asked him where he wanted to get down. He said he did not know the stop, and just knew the name as he was new to Mumbai. I could not believe my ears when she started off a volley of abuses on him! “Stop nahi maalum to bus mein kyun chadhta hai, rickshaw mein jaane ka, sal**”, were the words that she used. All the passengers seemed stunned on hearing this.

Anyway, she did the same to many more people. I had to get down at the next stop, and fortunately she spared me of her verbal abuse.

In all this commotion, I wondered why the driver or the conductor did not tell the woman to shut up….they were just mute spectators....and much to the amusement of other passengers.